photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Karen O gets her Santa and JT on @ Brooklyn Bowl

The ongoing "I heart Jonathan Toubin" movement now has a website in addition to a Facebook. Check those sites for info on more upcoming JT benefits like the big one that happened at Brooklyn Bowl late Friday night into Saturday morning with appearances from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Reverend Vince Anderson (who plays Union Pool most Monday nights), Heavy Trash (with Jon Spencer), Stabbing Eastward (Tunde Adebimpe & Ryan Sawyer), Royal Baths and more. Here are some pictures. More of them below...

Continue reading "Yeah Yeah Yeahs & friends raised money for Jonathan Toubin @ Brooklyn Bowl (pics)"

JONATHAN TOUBIN BENEFIT
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Heavy Trash, Stabbing Eastward (Tunde Adebimpe & Ryan Sawyer), Royal Baths, Rotating DJ's All Night Long: Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers), Billy Miller (Norton Records), Bear In Heaven, Leo Fitzpatrick, Habibi, and Slowdance
FRI, DECEMBER 16, 2011
DOORS: 10:30 PM / SHOW: 11:30 PM
$25.00 - $100.00

THIS EVENT IS 21 AND OVER
100% OF THE PROCEEDS WILL GO TO ASSISTING WITH JONATHAN'S HOSPITAL & MEDICAL BILLS.
$25 MINIMUM DONATION IN ADVANCE.
$35 MINIMUM DONATION DAY OF SHOW.

11:30pm Friday night. Tickets are on sale.

Also, another update from the IheartJT Facebook page:

IheartJT Update: Hi everyone! We've set up a po box so that you can send gifts/cards to Jonathan. Please don't send perishables or flowers to this address though. The address is:
Jonathan Toubin
818 SW 3rd Ave
PO Box 293
Portland, Or 97204-2405

Jonathan Toubin has been in a Portland hospital since a car drove through the wall of his hotel room while he was sleeping on December 8th. For other recent updates, see HERE.

photos by Ryan Muir

"There never would have been a White Stripes or Black Keys without Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Dude is killing it at Brooklyn Bowl!" - Todd Goodwin

NY Press: Over the course of this year, all of the band's albums are going to be re-released, but what about new material?

Jon Spencer: Not all of them, but a lot of them. We started with this compilation, which is an overview of the first 10 years of the band. In a couple months, we'll release Now I Got Worry and Contro Negro and a couple months after that will be Year One, all of the records released in the band's first year. All in all, there will be six albums.

NY Press: You're also releasing a best-of compilation. Is that the material we can expect to hear at the Brooklyn Bowl show?

Jon Spencer: We'll definitely be pulling from all six albums, all of the albums really, and maybe some new stuff. I've been meaning to think about what's on the compilation and maybe hit those songs. We never use a set list, we just get up and do it, so what we're going to do is not know until we get there.

The above-referenced Brooklyn Bowl show took place Friday night with Golden Triangle. This summer you can catch the band again if you're in Chicago for the Pitchfork Festival.

Meanwhile, one of Jon's other bands, Heavy Trash just kicked off a tour that will hit The Saint in Asbury Park on April 28th and then Mercury Lounge in NYC the next day. All dates and more pictures from Brooklyn Bowl, below...

Continue reading "Jon Spencer Blues Explosion played Brooklyn Bowl w/ Golden Triangle (pics), Heavy Trash touring (dates) "

Heavy Trash @ Mercury Lounge in 2009 (more by Tim Griffin)

Tickets are on sale (@ noon) for the show National / Beach House show coming to Prospect Park. Tickets may still be available for the 1.5 month sooner Radio City show too, not to mention the Beach House show coming to Webster Hall.

Ringo Starr and His All Star Band are playing Radio City Music Hall on July 7th. Tickets are currently on "Internet Presale" with regular sale beginning Friday at 9am.

Abe Vigoda are playing Mercury Lounge on March 31st. Tickets are on sale (@ noon).

Heavy Trash are playing Mercury Lounge on April 29th. Tickets are on sale. Want to seew Heavy Trash much sooner? They're also at Public Assembly this Saturday night.

Heavy Trash shared a bill with Those Darlins at Mercury Lounge over the summer. Tomorrow (2/5) Those Darlins headline Bowery Ballroom for the first time.

Live bands included. More details below...

Continue reading "2009 WFMU Record Fair this weekend (w/ live bands)"

by Martin Longley

Er, well, I fucked up slightly. It's my first time at The Bowery Electric and I arrive at eleven, thinking that the gig's happening until midnite. By eleven-twenty, Heavy Trash have fully climaxed, and there's not going to be an encore, despite the crowd doing an extremely good job of baying out over the rockabilly/blues disco. Even so, the Heavy Trash experience is so densely intense that such a brief exposure almost feels equivalent to most other combos playing a full gig. The Electric's an impressively cave-like basement den, and Heavy Trash are completely dominating its intimate space. The gangly Jon Spencer is going for a Mexican Elvis look, testifying down on one knee, or down on the floor, or casting his blank gaze up to the ceiling.

Having witnessed his Blues Explosion several times over the years, this is my first exposure to Heavy Trash. It's a natural evolution back in time to rockabilly, and even rock'n'roll, but fed through the Spencer grater, amped up into a frothing frenzy. He's doing his extended band-introduction speech, but the Spencer mind's going blank and he's being fazed by familiar faces in the crowd-front. All of the band are providing sweet-toned backing vocals, magnifying the cabaret-irony vibrations. Spencer's strumming an electrified acoustic guitar, with Matt Verta-Ray handling the electric-twang soloing. Reverb soaks all, not least Spencer's hiccup-ing vocals. The drums and upright bass pick up their pace and there's a full re-launch into song as the Trash deliver their final frenetic surge. Fortunately, they're playing again at Santos Party House next Tuesday nite...

The Tuesday (10/20) show in question is the Panache/NY Night Train CMJ showcase that is happening on two floors of the venue. Flyer and set times below....

Continue reading "Heavy Trash played Bowery Electric, playing NY Night Train CMJ show at Santos Party House (full lineup)"

photos by Tim Griffin

Those Darlins

The first two-thirds of the show was utterly tension-free, with the band getting by on concept. The tragic "Mama's Heart" lacked punch, and "Little Darling Pal of Mine," a Carter Family cover, was sluggish. The songs later improved in direct proportion to how involved Kelley was. Her singing on "Who's That Knockin' at My Window" and "Hung Up on Me" was forceful, and when she switched to guitar for "Cannonball Blues," the band finally appeared in full color. (Kelley founded the Southern Girls Rock & Roll Camp, in which Jessi participated.)

Still, the night's best moments came toward the end, when Those Darlins didn't appear to be worried about being a good band, or even a band at all. During "Shakin' All Over," Nikki brought an awkward male fan onstage for some cringeworthy dancing, saved only by her arched eyebrow. At the encore, "Fun Stix Party" devolved into a raucous, peppy shoutfest that was also the most technically flamboyant song of the night. And after the lights came up, Those Darlins set down their instruments, walked out onto the main floor and danced as the crowd filed out. It was the loosest they'd been all night. [NY Times]

Like they did at the BrooklynVegan showcase at SXSW this year, Shilpa Ray and Those Darlins shared a bill on Thursday night (6/9). The NYC show was at Mercury Lounge and also featured a set by Jon Spencer's band Heavy Trash. Those Darlins also played Southpaw in Brooklyn on Friday (all dates HERE). More pictures from Mercury Lounnge below...

Continue reading "Those Darlins, Shilpa Ray & Heavy Trash (Jon Spencer) @ Mercury Lounge in NYC - pics & setlists"

DOWNLOAD: Those Darlins - Red Light Love (MP3)

Titus Andronicus @ Bowery Ballroom (more by Leia Jospe)


Titus Andronicus will be playing the Colt 45/Vice Magazine party at Glasslands on Thursday, July 9th (tonight). The band's MySpace reveals that The So-So Glos will also be appearing (though the show flyer, below, only lists a "special guest"). The show is free with RSVP, though there's limited capacity.

The So So Glos are also playing a show on Friday, July 10th at Southpaw with Those Darlins who play a show with Heavy Trash and Shilpa Ray at Mercury Lounge tonight. All dates below.

Titus is also scheduled to play July 10th with Real Estate at the first of the Whitney Museum's four July rock shows. That's still happening -- the concert is free with admittance to the museum which is free from 6-9pm on Fridays - so it's a free show, but first come, first served.

The MySpace schedule for Real Estate, who just played in Brooklyn on July 4th, lists an additional NYC date for San Francisco's Fresh & Onlys. That show, the Mexican Summer/Insound party at Cameo Gallery on July 16th, can be added is not actually part of the Fresh & Onlys extensive upcoming schedule. The show is happening, but the Fresh & Onlys aren't playing it. Actually on the bill are Woods and Golden Triangle.

Or you can catch Woods and Real Estate a day prior (July 15th), when they play Wavves' first post-European-tour-cancellation show at the Bowery Ballroom.

A flyer for the Glasslands show, with all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Titus Andronicus, the So So Glos, Real Estate, Those Darlins & other upcoming shows (dates)"

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: 18th Dye - Soft the Hard Way (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Powersolo - Pirates of the Oblivion (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Snake and Jet's Amazing Bullit Band - Ten Cities Beyond (Mp3)

Powersolo

South by Southwest is kind of like other people's dreams. If you're not apart of it, you may not want to hear about it. But at least for those in NYC, we do get some of SXSW's runoff, with many bands from Not America making pit stops here before or after the Austin onslaught. We did a rundown of Australia's offers last week, so in this few-part series I'll highlight some of the more notable bands from the UK and elsewhere in Europe who'll be visiting us over the next three weeks.

We started with Mumford & Sons, Peggy Sue and Jay Jay Pistolet. Let's continue with three bands, who if nothing else, have at least two things in common. They are all signed to Copenhagen indie label Crunchy Frog, and they're all playing that label's showcase at Santos Party House in NYC on March 16th (Jon Spencer is DJing). More info on that show and 18th Dye, Powersolo, and Snake and Jet's Amazing Bullit Band, below...

Continue reading "18th Dye, Powersolo & Snake and Jet's Amazing Bullit Band coming to NYC & SXSW - MP3's, videos, tour dates"

by Black Bubblegum

Heavy Trash

Jon Spencer and his Heavy Trash project with Matt Verta-Ray (Madder Rose) played Glasslands on 8/8 with Aussies Witch Hats. Here's how my esteemed colleague Bill Pearis described it:

If you're not familiar with Heavy Trash, Spencer does the same to rockabilly as he did to the blues -- he explodes it. Well not really, but he does have that certain intensity so this is more Hasil Adkins than Chuck Berry...

...Another surprise was Australian band Witch Hats who I also knew nothing about but ended up buying their record afterwards...... they laid down a thick layer of fuzzy, slightly gothy garage rock (think early-'80s Fall), powered by one of the best drummers I've seen in a long time

The pair play a show tonight (8/11) at Santos Party House with Make-Up/Weird War/Nation Of Ulysses honcho Ian Svenonius on the wheels of steel.

Witch Hats are currently in the midst of their first US tour, check out below for their full remaining schedule. RCRD LBL has two Witch Hats songs up for download.

Continue reading "Witch Hats - 2008 Tour Dates + Heavy Trash tonight (again)"